Hedwig Eva Maria Kiesler (1914–2000), better known asHedy Lamarr, was an Austrian-born actress active in Hollywood from the 1930s to the '50s. One of her first starring roles was in the dialog-light film Ekstase, which featured a long scene of Lamarr fully nude. While The Hays Code made a repeat performance in America impossible, the reputation as a dark and glamorous Ms. Fanservice did follow her. Subsequent films included an adaptation of John Steinbeck's Tortilla Flat and the Cecil B Demille film Samson and Delilah, which was said to be her personal favorite of all her films and arguably the film for which she is best remembered. Sadly, her career went into decline after that particular high point (it was the highest grossing film of the year for Paramount; pretty much the Lord of the Rings of 1949) and a decade later she retired from Hollywood.

Lamarr was also very mathematically talented; her most notable non-movie achievement was inventing, along with composer George Antheil, a form of radio frequency hopping that is the basis for components of wi-fi and cordless phones today. Or as Cracked.com put it, she's the world's sexiest Mad Scientist.

Speaking of Blazing Saddles, one of the Governor's lines to the character Hedley Lamar in that film — "This is 1874! You'll be able sue her!" — proved ironically prescient: Lamarr did end up suing Mel Brooks' production company for $10 million for invasion of privacy. (They ended up settling out of court for an undisclosed amount.)

Cecil B. DeMille's Samson and Delilah, as Delilah (1949) — Opposite Victor Mature. This was the film that prompted Groucho Marx's famous quip: "I never go to see a picture where the guy's tits are bigger than the goil's."

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